Cloudflare instead of SEO hosting/many cheap hosting?

Hi there,
I read a thread in the past about this topic but it was almost 2 years ago so I decided to make a new thread.

Basically if you use Cloudflare, you can hide behind cloudflare's IPs for each domain.
So if you have many domains/blogs in your network (let's say 100), It would save you a lot of time(managing domains and servers) and money (100 domains would cost $100/mo cheapest) than using SEO hosting or use 100 of $1 hosting companies.

Even though they'll all have cloudflare's IPs, I'd think it is much better than having SEO hosting IPs (I'm sure G knows which IPs are from SEO hosting companies).So I'm thinking of using it for my blog network.

Has anyone had experience with Cloudflare?
Could you share your experience?

You add cloudflare cdn DNS record to your website DNS, Cloudflare will serve the static content of your website, without SSL (for free members),
If the cloudflare servers are online, they will first serve your website when requested by visitors or by bots, hmm seems doable, why not?
Contradiction, can we set specific cloudflare IPs for each of our website/blog? If not, all of our websites/blogs may have same cloudflare IP, then seems not worth.

Hate to be the voice discouraging what think is a cheap workaround from using seo hosting, but I feel some of this here is misleading. Cloud flare indeed does act as a layer between your site and the outside world which is a good service which has its place.

However cloud flare out if the box setup does no such thing. Here's what people are missing.

1) FTP goes right through cloud flare. There is no layer in between with ftp. For a standard domain (I. E. Out of the box cloud flare dns) ftp.yourdomain.com will resolve directly to your host ip address. A quick DNS lookup on a client site using cloud flare confirms this.

2. Mail server - this may or may not apply to you. If you have mail setup on your domain then the mx DNS records show your servers real ip address. Confirmed on mxtoolbox.

3. Cloud flare has a feature that allows a direct connection to your site for troubleshooting and stuff. A quick visit to direct.yourdomain.com for a cloud flare sire again gives you server ip address.

So in cconclusion it's totally false that cloudflare hides you server IP in pretty much anyway - when used as a quick install. It may be possible to work around this stuff with custom DNS settings in cloud flare, but as most people use it it does absolutely no hiding whatsoever.

Not to say you can't work around it. Just people here aren't showing you how or plain and simply don't have a clue.

I'll give it a run when I'm not on my cell... Typing on bhw on cell sucks.

Hate to be the voice discouraging what think is a cheap workaround from using seo hosting, but I feel some of this here is misleading. Cloud flare indeed does act as a layer between your site and the outside world which is a good service which has its place.

However cloud flare out if the box setup does no such thing. Here's what people are missing.

1) FTP goes right through cloud flare. There is no layer in between with ftp. For a standard domain (I. E. Out of the box cloud flare dns) ftp.yourdomain.com will resolve directly to your host ip address. A quick DNS lookup on a client site using cloud flare confirms this.

2. Mail server - this may or may not apply to you. If you have mail setup on your domain then the mx DNS records show your servers real ip address. Confirmed on mxtoolbox.

3. Cloud flare has a feature that allows a direct connection to your site for troubleshooting and stuff. A quick visit to direct.yourdomain.com for a cloud flare sire again gives you server ip address.

So in cconclusion it's totally false that cloudflare hides you server IP in pretty much anyway - when used as a quick install. It may be possible to work around this stuff with custom DNS settings in cloud flare, but as most people use it it does absolutely no hiding whatsoever.

Not to say you can't work around it. Just people here aren't showing you how or plain and simply don't have a clue.

I'll give it a run when I'm not on my cell... Typing on bhw on cell sucks.

Click to expand...

Wow, you're right - I just checked my ip for "direct.mysite.com" and "ftp.mysite.com" then it revealed my server ip. Would be great if you could show me/us how we could walk around it...

Why don't you guys stick with Separate B-Class IPs for your private networks?
The hosting is not that expansive(around 3$/site) and that's one of the ultimate frontieres to cover your footprints.

Btw,a lot of people doesn't seem to know what "Seo Hosting" means,confusing that hosting package with some blackhat/gray-hat seo benefits,which google hates and will punish!That's complete BS,"seo hosting" is just a marketing method to sell hosting accounts with dedicated IPs.

Are they just saying it to protect themselves (no responsibility for hiding IPs) or can people (or more importantly, Google) see the original IP?
----------------------------------------------------------Will CloudFlare hide my IP online?

Damon
November 02, 2012 15:31

CloudFlare is not an IP protection service and there really is no way to fully hide your IP address online. While basic lookups of a domain on CloudFlare will terminate on CloudFlare's IPs and nameservers checking a domain, CloudFlare is not an IP protection service and there are ways of locating your server IP address whether you are using CloudFlare or not.

Cloudflare do not fully hide original IP. So it can be trace. If you need and option to have blog network in different location/server. Try the service that can serve you a real physical server on different location around the world. https://www.google.com/#q=multiple+location+hosting

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